Community

Community Involvement

Community service is at the core of what we do at the Hughston Foundation. The services we provide are the product of training, education, and research, and inseparable from our mission of improving lives and strengthening communities. At Hughston, we are always looking for ways to give back to our supporters and strive to improve community outreach. Thus, we have a long tradition of helping the athlete prepare for competition, being present on the sidelines for Friday night games, offering Saturday morning sports injury clinics, and sponsoring education seminars for coaches and parents.

Sports Medicine Programs

Sports Injury Clinic

Every Saturday morning during the fall sports season, the Hughston Sports Medicine Team, composed of clinic physicians, residents, athletic trainers, and physical therapists from Hughston come together at the Hughston Clinic in Columbus, GA to examine high school athletes injured during Friday night games. This means that no athlete has to pass an anxious weekend awaiting treatment. The volunteer healthcare professionals offers on-site diagnoses and treatment plans as well as education on injury management to the athlete and their guardians. These unique Saturday morning sports injury clinics run from August through November. Over the past 9 years, the members of the Hughston sports medicine team have treated over 800 high school athletes from the West Georgia and East Alabama region who participated in a variety of sports.

Sports Coverage

Sideline Medical Coverage
Hughston Foundation Fellows, the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital Residents, Clinic physicians, and athletic trainers spend a lot of time on the sidelines of area competitions. As the official sports medicine provider for the Muscogee County School District, the Hughston Foundation cares for athletes at sporting competitions and helps plan and implement safety protocols and procedures at sporting events. Whether at the softball fields of South Commons, on the sidelines of the soccer fields at the Woodruff Farm Road complex, or at a sporting event in the Columbus Civic Center, the Hughston Foundation is there to provide medical coverage for area athletes and spectators. Certified athletic trainers (ATCs) not only help with medical coverage at special events, but also work on site daily with many local high school athletes.

VSU football national champion (Jacobson, Collins, Heaton)
Central-Phenix football AL state champion (Baker III)
Colquitt County football state runner up (Collins)

The Hughston Athletic Trainers provide regular sideline coverage on Friday and Saturday for local high school sporting events. It is also the official first-aid provider at many athletic and public events throughout the Chattahoochee Valley. Hughston athletic trainers provided education materials and medical coverage for the following:

Georgia High School Association State Softball Tournament
Georgia High School Association State Cheerleading Championships
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes Swimming and Diving Championship

Wrestling Assessments
The Hughston Foundation continues to partner with the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) in serving as the regional site for mandated assessments for local wrestling programs. Before student-athletes can compete in GHSA-sanctioned events, they must pass an assessment that measures height, weight, hydration status, and overall body fat percentage. These values are then entered into a computer program that calculates how many pounds an athlete can safely lose during the season. Both the Hughston Foundation and the GHSA are committed to ensuring safe weight loss for all area high school wrestlers.

Preparticipation Screenings (IAHCR)

More than 100 employees, physicians, nurses, athletic trainers, and students from the Hughston network, and volunteers, participate in the annual preparticipation health screenings for local high school athletes. The Institute of Athletic Health Care and Research (IAHCR) directs and organizes the screenings and accompanying research, and the Hughston Foundation cosponsors them.

The chief objective of these screenings is to detect conditions that could place the athlete or other participants at risk for injury. Each year, athletes from more than 15 area high schools are screened. The cost of screening for each athlete is $10.00: $5.00 goes into an account at the athlete’s school for training equipment not covered by the athletic budget, and $5.00 goes toward the cost of screening supplies.

Under the direction of the late Stephen C. Hunter, MD, the Hughston Foundation created the Institute to serve the athletic community and pursue research in sports medicine. Since 1976, the IAHCR has completed more than 55,000 screenings. We add the results of these screenings to our database, which researchers use to study athletes’ health. Thanks to our volunteers and knowledgeable healthcare professionals, the preparticipation screening program has positively impacted the health and safety of the area’s high school athletes.

Community & Philanthropy

ImPACT Golf Tournament

The Hughston Golf Tournament has been held every year since 2013. This fundraiser event is a big hit with business leaders and educators each year. All funds raised by the tournament go directly to support the Hughston Protect the Athletes campaign. The mission of the campaign is to raise funds to support the athletic sports coverage that Hughston provides to youth programs, such as sideline coverage at high school sporting events, support of preparticipation exams, and Saturday morning injury clinics. Besides providing coverage at sporting events, this fundraising project helps purchase much needed ImPACT concussion software for area high schools and other participating colleges.

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